Hematologists commonly employ both microscopy and flow cytometry to study and classify blood cells, normal and abnormal hematopoesis, and hematopathologies. Amnis® imaging flow cytometry's unique ability to quantify images of large numbers of cells in suspension makes the technology ideally suited for the field of Hematology. Some example applications include combined immunophenotypic and morphology-based classification of the different stages of erythropoiesis, identification of sickle cells or parasite-infected RBC, and quantification of phagocytosis, co-localization, chemokine-induced shape change, and cell signaling within specific subsets of circulating blood cells.

Erythroid Differentiation

As hematopoeitc stem cells differentiate through the erythroid lineage, they shrink and eventually enucleate as they progress towards becoming RBC. They also progressively gain expression of glycophorinA and lose CD71 expression. The extruded nuclei express low levels of glycophorinA on their membranes. This experiment demonstrates the unique ability of the Imagestream®x to classify cells using a combination of intensity, morphology, and location based parameters.